On a summer evening in Yuma, Arizona, the life of 12-year-old Enrique Bedoya was stolen in an act of brutal violence that also claimed the lives of five other people. The date was June 24, 2005, a day that would become infamous in the city's history for the horrific discoveries made inside a home at 2037 La Mesa Street. Enrique, a male guest at the residence, was spending time with his friend, 13-year-old Andreas Crawford, when their lives were cut short.
That evening, police responded
to the address after receiving reports of gunshots and screaming. In the backyard, they found 35-year-old Luis Rios, who had been shot multiple times and died shortly after at a nearby hospital. Fearing a hostage situation, officers cautiously entered the house. Inside, they were met with a devastating scene: five more victims, including four children. Among them were Enrique Bedoya and his friend Andreas. Both boys had been bound and had died of asphyxiation.
The other victims were 29-year-old Adrienne Heredia, Rios's girlfriend, and her two children, 9-year-old Inez Newman and 6-year-old Danny Heredia III. Adrienne and Inez had also been asphyxiated, while young Danny had been shot to death, similar to Luis Rios. The sheer scale of the violence, targeting both adults and children in such a personal and brutal manner, left the community in shock and fear.
The investigation into what became known as the "La Mesa Street Murders" was extensive and complex. Yuma police conducted over 1,300 interviews and followed up on thousands of tips in the years that followed the killings. Despite the immense effort, the case remained unsolved for more than two years. A breakthrough came on November 28, 2007, when authorities publicly identified Preston Alton Strong as a suspect. At the time, Strong was already in police custody on unrelated fraud charges.
Prosecutors would later argue that the motive for the massacre was financial. Strong, who was a friend of Luis Rios, had reportedly grown angry after Rios, who had frequently loaned him money, refused to continue providing him with financial support. This refusal allegedly led Strong to commit the six murders. The investigation also linked Strong to another killing—the 2007 murder of Dr. Satinder Gill, for which he was convicted in 2012 and sentenced to life in prison.
After years of legal proceedings, Preston Alton Strong was officially charged with the six La Mesa Street murders in the summer of 2014. His trial brought the painful details of that June night back into the public eye. On April 25, 2017, a jury found Strong guilty on all six counts of first-degree murder. He was subsequently sentenced to death for his crimes. In addition to the murder convictions, Strong's criminal record included aggravated assault, armed robbery, burglary, kidnapping, attempted arson, forgery, and theft.
Preston Alton Strong remains on death row in Arizona. He has continued to appeal his convictions and sentences, claiming misconduct by the police and jury. However, in September 2024, the Arizona Supreme Court upheld his death sentence for the La Mesa murders, bringing a measure of finality to a case that had haunted the Yuma community for nearly two decades. For the families of Enrique Bedoya and the other five victims, the legal outcome confirmed the guilt of the man responsible for their immeasurable loss.
